The impact of negative treatment experiences on persistent refusal of antipsychotics.

Aims: We investigate reasons for persistent medication refusal in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and test whether factors that speak for a rational decision, such as negative experiences with medication or low symptom distress predict medication refusal, even after taking differences in insight into account.

Method: We included 45 participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, of which 20 had refused antipsychotic medication for at least three months and assessed reasons for taking or not taking medication, labeling condition as mental disorder ("insight"), experiences with the previous treatments, symptoms and symptom distress, positive and negative consequences and experiences of psychosis, causal beliefs, therapeutic relationships with previous clinicians and attitudes towards medication.

Results: Groups did not differ in symptom severity but medication refusers reported significantly less insight, less satisfaction with their most-recent psychiatrist and with previous medication, and more negative beliefs about harmful effects of medication.

Measuring Verbal Psychotherapeutic Techniques-A Systematic Review of Intervention Characteristics and Measures.

Language is one of the most important "tools" of psychotherapists. The working mechanisms of verbal therapeutic techniques, however, are still marginally understood. In part, this is due to the lack of a generally acknowledged typology as well as a gold standard for the assessment of verbal techniques, which limits the possibility of conducting studies focusing this topic.

Paths to first treatment and duration of untreated illness in anorexia nervosa: are there differences according to age of onset?

This study examined paths to first treatment and the duration of untreated illness in 140 anorexia nervosa patients using validated questionnaires and a clinical interview. The differences between individuals with an early (≤14 years, n = 40), intermediate (15-18 years, n = 53) and late onset (≥19 years, n = 47) were investigated. Participants were most commonly informed about their diagnosis and first treatment facility through general practitioners and paediatricians.

[Significance of brief interventions in the healthcare supply chain of eating disorders: a narrative review].

So far there is no comprehensive overview on brief outpatient interventions in eating disorders. The specific relevance of psychotherapeutic brief interventions for Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder is presented against the background of current healthcare supply chains. This review is based on a literature search that evaluated relevant publications in applicable literature databases.

Artificial skin--culturing of different skin cell lines for generating an artificial skin substitute on cross-weaved spider silk fibres.

Background: In the field of Plastic Reconstructive Surgery the development of new innovative matrices for skin repair is in urgent need. The ideal biomaterial should promote attachment, proliferation and growth of cells. Additionally, it should degrade in an appropriate time period without releasing harmful substances, but not exert a pathological immune response.